Robust perennial plants 75–120 cm high, somewhat glaucous; base not thickened, pubescent or hirsute. Culms simple or basally branched, mostly glabrous; nodes often knuckled, sparsely pubescent or bearded. Leaves mostly glabrous; sheaths usually longer than lower culm internodes and shorter than upper culm internodes; blade to 40 cm long, to 9 mm wide, smooth or sometimes scabrous. Panicles contracted or eventually open, 8–15 cm long, 1.5–6 cm wide (including awns). Glumes 7–10.5 mm long, muticous or cuspidate, long-acuminate into a beak, 9–11-nerved, one or both glumes hispid or hirsute with tubercle-based hairs or glabrous and smooth. Florets subequal to glumes (sometimes slightly longer); lemma and palea appressed or with lemma and awn slightly recurved. Lemma 7–8 mm long, long-acuminate, usually awned, cartilaginous, 5–7-nerved, bisulcate towards apex, hirsute in lower 1/2–2/3 with hairs reaching or exceeding lemma apex, ciliolate on margins towards apex, scabrous near apex, ciliate adaxially on nerves near apex; awn 2–13 mm long. Palea 8.5–8.8 mm long, long-acuminate with beak c. 3 mm long and bifid for 0.3–2.5 mm, with indumentum similar to lemma. Caryopsis 2.8–3.8 mm long.
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